Friday at the Movies: Precious

I almost feel silly reviewing Precious this week. I imagine everyone has seen it, most people probably saw it before the Oscars. Not me. I rented it on Tuesday.

The movie is from 2009 and was directed by Lee Daniels. It stars Mo'Nique, Gabby Sidibe, and Paula Patton. But you already knew that, right?

The movie is about Precious Jones, an illiterate, pregnant, abused 16 year old living in the Bronx circa 1987. She is in the 7th grade. After being expelled from school for being pregnant, she begins attending an alternative school. Her teacher, Miss Rain, helps her see that she's capable of, and deserves, more than what she has.



It sounds like just another uplifting story about an underprivileged kid turning their life around.

In a lot of ways, it is.

It's a bit more extreme, though. Precious is abused in every way possible. Every word that comes out of her mother's mouth is verbal abuse. Her father, no longer around, repeatedly raped her. Her mother throws things (glass bottles, etc) at her. Several times during the movie, I winced at the abuse or had my jaw drop to the ground over the things that were said to her. It's not for the faint of heart.

The performances in this movie were phenomenal, though. Gabby Sidibe looked like a Hollywood veteran. Mo'Nique earned that Oscar. Mariah Carey had a small part and she was fantastic. If she'd stick to things like this instead of spewing God-knows-what about rainbows and butterflies, she'd get her dignity back.

But I digress.

The movie is definitely worth seeing. It's one of those that you only need to see once, though. It was absolutely heartbreaking. (In fact, I thought about throwing the stills up, writing "It was heartbreaking" and leaving it at that.) Most of the movie is hard to watch but it's worth trying.